MOZART AND THE PRACTICE OF SACRED MUSIC, 1781-91 a ...

company entered these parts into Mozart’s autograph, this would strengthen the contention
that some part of the Requiem was performed at the memorial service. A number of the
more obvious candidates can be ruled out, including Johann Georg Spangler, Joseph Preindl,
Benedikt Schack, and Henneberg. Schikaneder’s own musical handwriting has yet to be
identified, although as an occasional composer himself he certainly possessed one. A number
of other important figures, including Constanze Mozart herself, were no doubt capable of
notation, but no sample of their musical hand has so far been authenticated. 215 If indeed
Schikaneder was the driving force behind the service, there is a pleasing symmetry with his
own last days, when, in 1812, the recently departed theatre director was honoured with a
performance of Mozart’s Requiem at the church of St. Josef in Leopoldstadt. 216
The Viennese have always held a special fascination with death and its rituals – the
city is, after all, home to a funeral museum – and music for such services could be elaborate.
Johann Ferdinand von Schönfeld, discussing Viennese church music in 1796, wrote:
Die Musik bei der Todtenmesse hat darinn besondere Vorzüge, daß ihre Komposizion voll
Ausdruck ist, fromme Empfindungen erregt, und dem feierlichen Todesamte in seelenerhebender
Rührung vollkommen Hülfe und Genüge leistet. 217
Whether it was Mozart’s Requiem that brought the composer’s Todesamt to a successful
completion may never be known for certain. The allegation that the Requiem was performed
does not appear in the most well-informed account of the occasion, and is based entirely
upon two further sources of unknown provenance. There is no doubt that the service itself
did occur and featured music of some kind, but the surviving documentation from St.
Michael’s cannot offer confirmation for the newspaper reports that some form of K. 626 was
215 See MVC, 99.
216 See Anke Sonnek, Emanuel Schikaneder: Theaterprinzipal, Schauspieler und Stückeschrieber, vol. 11,
Schriftenreihe der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999), 131.
217 Schönfeld, Jahrbuch der Tonkunst, 97-8. The passage seems to be derived from De Luca, Topographie von
Wien, i.381-82.
414